1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to wireless local area network (WLAN), and more particularly to an apparatus and a method for supporting mobility of a mobile node between foreign subnetworks in the local area network.
2. Related Art
A subnetwork will be presumed to be a small network unit that is divided by a gateway in a private network. Typcially, a mobility of a mobile node is supported within the same subnetwork only, and the applied technology thereof has been supported by using medium access control (MAC) level data on Ethernet or 802.3, but not through mobility support on IP (Internet Protocol).
A mobile node in a wireless local area network can correspond to a mobile computer such as a notebook computer, laptop computer, tablet computer, hand-held computer, wearable computer, or other type of portable computer device. Also, a mobile node in a wireless local area network can correspond to a mobile telephone, a pager, a text-messaging device, a communication unit such as a semiconductor chip for communications, or other type of portable communication apparatus.
A mobile node can correspond to any unit that can be in communication with a wireless network. A mobile node may be known by many different names, such as mobile terminal, mobile computing device, mobile station, remote unit, mobile unit, or a mobile user station, for example.
A mobile node communicates with a wireless local area network (WLAN) using a network interface card (NIC). Access points manage wireless resources in a subnetwork of a wireless local area network. The access points exchange information with a mobile node through a wireless link. A mobile access server controls access points, and supports signal protocol, for example, call set and call release. A mobile access server (MAS) includes a gateway for communication with Internet and/or Intranet.
It is my observation that it can be difficult, inconvenient, inefficient and/or unnecessarily complicated to move a mobile node between subnetworks of a wireless local area network.